DeeSpencer

1. I don't think Viney is ready to take it on solo just yet but I do think he'll be ready to do that in the next future, probably next year. 2. I don't think Jones really should keep it. Relieving the pressure of extra duties/responsibilities should prolong his career. 3.. I'm not sure Tommy Mc or Gawn should be elevated to co-captain if it's only going to be for a year. Pretty much if you put that all together it might be Jones and Viney again this year. Or it might be Gawn/T Mc and Viney. Or it might be Viney with Gawn and T Mc as vice captains. Also shouldn't be Tom McDonald if he's off to Jordan Peterson. That's a worry.

Plenty of draft camp times available. 2km time trial Dylan Moore 6:09 minutes Lochie O'Brien 6:12 Gryan Miers 6:13 Andrew Brayshaw 6:14 Trent Mynott 6:14 Aiden Domic 6:15 Angus Styles 6:17 Changkuoth Jiath 6:17 Nathan Murphy 6:21 Jaidyn Stephenson 6:21 Ethan Floyd 6:25 I'd imagine guys aren't improving too much on those times because a lot of the time they have to bulk up and work on their speed. Probably only a few at each club under 6 minutes and not many if any getting down towards 5:30

Yep this is what I came here to say. The logical compromise. Those invested in AFLW enough can go to the AFLW board. But we sure all either be interested or at least not threatened by seeing the game day threads. Would be a good way to get more people involved in the conversation. A strong vote for the game day thread to be on the main board please mods.

Pretty good indication on why I think intraclubs are a waste of time and why I like that we're playing against the Pies instead. Ball movement is usually hopeless, everyone knows where it's going so there's no test or creativity. New players with a point to prove often stand out. Ring ins (in our case mostly from Casey) play and get in the way or get beat up on. I remember Shannon Byrnes kicking a bag on a Casey kid that meant nothing for the season starting.

Just wear this bad boy. I love this jumper so much

1 co-principal partner out - iSelect. 1 co-principal partner in - Jaguar. They are the jumper sponsors and the big ones to get signed and hopefully on multi year deals. I think the AFL brand protection rules would only be for that level of sponsor. Toyota can't be cheaply undercut by Mazda buying Gold Coast's jumper sponsorship for $200,000 is surely the idea there. For the lower level of sponsors I doubt the rule would apply. There's almost no way Infiniti would've paid us 1M+ to not even be a jumper sponsor last year. In terms of Major Sponsors - which infinity was last year, they are the ones that get worn on the shorts and club polos and have match day activities. The website currently lists 8. Johnnie Walker, IG, China Southern, Haynes Paint, Chisholm, NT, New Balance, CSG. Plenty of time to add more at that level. We've had multi year deals with those companies.

I can see the appeal. We have a down year this year and you get the 'why did he get a 3 year extension', and then when the next deadline is closing in you get more speculation. Or we are very successful over this next contract and then we're looking at paying him megabucks. Locking him in to a regular staff contract might achieve more certainty for both parties. The concern is every year becomes a contract year if you get to the stage where there's no pay outs (assuming there's some protections over the early years for Goody). I've seen enough from Goodwin to think he's a very good coach who can adapt and grow with the job. Things will only go badly wrong if he's surrounded by the wrong people or the wrong players. That's not to say Goody alone can bring sustained success but if you abandon the idea of the messiah coach you can treat Goodwin as a vital foundation to build upon.

My guess: They had a look at what we could provide with the sponsorship last year and then fed that data to their boss company in Nissan who took a deal with the Hawks. It wouldn't have made sense for Nissan and Infiniti to sponsor competing clubs, and they don't see enough cars here to justify a large sponsorship either.

I didn't read the article, still haven't. I assumed he would've spun a few more numbers in, my mistake. I'd read an article on the how's and why's of David King becoming the PR guy for Champion Data. That would interest me.

I’m not sure why anyone would take notice of King’s ability to crunch stats when he can’t count to 3 drinks. Oliver had an amazing year last year but according to that graph Bont had an equal or better year at 20. the hope is Clarry has more improvement to come but you can’t know for certain. Judging players is far more useful when they’re 31 not 21.

Wilson Asset Management?

Far better performance from the mids taking away the Pies style of play (they love to keep it in tight and march it forward). Pearce and O'Dea were excellent but the midfield group in general got the pressure and effort right. Backline did very well although the Pies forwards aren't a big threat. Edmonson looks a player. Lampard took a step up. Liked Kemp at half back. Forward line still not perfect but really good pressure and created chances. Hanks is a little beauty. And more than anything it was a disciplined team effort keeping the ball to the dead side for 2 quarters in to the wind and then using the open side with the breeze. Footy doesn't have to be pretty and playing the percentages is often what's needed. The Pies couldn't get it to the fat side or get anything going when they had the wind, they couldn't stop our girls hitting the open space when we had the scoring end. If it wasn't for Brazill the margin would've been 4 goals more.

The only thing to come out of last years game was many fans (myself included) staggered that Tom McDonald played when he was managing a toe injury. Everyone else got through fine. The small field, minimal contact and quick game time is pretty safe. If fully healthy then May could play that instead of a heavy contact practice game. My view on Tommy Mc depends on how his toe is. If there's any underlying concern that a firm Marvel stadium wouldn't be good for it then he should pull out.

Smart call. He might even need some local Footy in between the tac and VFL as well. Not an easy pathway for a raw 18 year old

Both GC recruits getting soft tissues at around the same time. Just hope he comes good quickly and plays JLT2. the Indigenous team is the one AFLX team with some form of purpose so it’s disappointing he didn’t get to play. He’s more of a match fitness guy than a training guy so I didn’t mind him playing in that, less risk than the Pies scratch match anyway

I can see the benefits of trying Salem on ball again as we did to start last year. Sure would be nice to have Viney and Oliver handballing to Salem rather than more crash and bash types. It's the role Higgins plays beautifully for North just getting it fed to him by Cunnington. But particularly if we decide to move on from Lewis as a permanent fixture I think Salem has to inherit the leadership of the backline. Roos compared him to McVeigh last year and I want him in that role. Yeah to mix things up he could swap with the wingers to change match ups or get others in to the game but I wouldn't want a more consistent rotation if he's going to be the guy. Preuss' best chance involves only playing around 60% game time in a tight game I think. Pretty much covering Gawn, T Mc and Weid when they're on the bench and otherwise spending some solid time on the pine himself. Harmes, Fritsch and Oliver probably play a little forward and Vanders and Petracca have to cover some midfield minutes and you go in with one less mid/forward rotation player. I doubt we'll see it in round 1 because fitness and run is vital in round 1. Joel Smith - I thought he was building nicely as a backman even with the disposal/decision making faults. It seems for now anyway they've scrapped that idea. Maybe the Hawks influence that there's just no point having bad kicks in your backline, they cost you too much. Maybe a couple more years training as a forward and he could still end up down back to replace guys like Hibberd and Jetta in time. No one knows what he can do as a forward, but he might get an early chance due to his fitness. Athletic defenders as pressure words are popular across the comp, the Tigers do it very well with Castagna. Very different player but if Melksham isn't right I could see them using Smith as the extra height even as a pressure player and maybe freeing Spargo up to give a bit of skill. Keen to see if Spargo escapes the 2nd year blues.

You go 110% just like a game. It's better to do this than to play intraclubs that do actually raise the question of how hard to go and don't really test your structures because everyone knows what their opponents are meant to do. We've only go the two practice games on the 3rd and 9th and the quick back up there probably means you don't play your best 22 in both for full games. A preliminary hit out against the Pies lets you have a better look at the guys who are 23-32 on the list as well to try and see who surprises.

Looks like only 2 or 3 in the first half and 1 in the second half were on May. I'm more interested in seeing a fitter more motivated and in a better side version of May than any personal revenge. That said, Jack does a pretty good job disguising the high opinion he holds of himself but every now and then he lets it slip.

To be honest the game was so boring I was barely watching and couldn't work out exactly what the Rams were or weren't doing, but they did well enough on defense to win it. Did the Pats stack Edelman in a bunch so he couldn't be pressured? They did that against KC. It was clear to me what the Pats were doing. Lining 6 defenders on the D Line and saying to the Rams you can't run outside zone runs and good luck running play action because we'll just bring the 6 defenders no matter what. So you better have it blocked perfectly and be super fast to get it out or we'll pressure Goff. As Warren Sharp documents in that thread the logical change was to bring in a second tight end so you've got 7 blockers if need be. I know the Rams don't have great tight ends, which is a lesson for teams around the league - invest in valuable players in the positions that have versatility like tight end = a more versatile offense. But either way the Rams had to get that 7th blocker in and force the Pats to change from just lining up 6 defenders on the line and getting pressure on Goff. Goff certainly choked, the delayed throw to Cooks cost a touchdown and the lead. And yeah I think McVay wasn't as confident in Goff from the Chicago game on. He had to find some plays that gave him and Goff confidence. A series of short completions or a designed run or something. Maybe it was the play to Cooks that would've been the one that got them going.

The good news: only 2 demons picked The bad news: 2 very important ones! Maybe our most important defender and our most important forward.

This is the biggest one I think. Forwards will have to be trained not to take rushed shots on goal. If you get the ball forward somewhat quickly then snap a behind you're going to get ripped apart on the counter. Similarly no bombed entries to the goal line, any long kicks in have to land outside the goal square so you've at least got a margin to work with. Kick out zones will have to be pulled back at least 5-10m. If Hunt gets back in form he could be a weapon. 11m goal square + 20m run (you usually get 5 extra) plus 60m kick. That's getting the ball close to the 50m arc on some grounds if he goes right down the middle. Similarly the rest of the defenders now have a chance to either go long or to hit up holes a spread out zone. We might send Gawn deep for a bomb as a decoy but have Salem hit up a short accurate kick up the middle 40m from goal who can then attack both sides of the ground. Fritsch, KK and Vanders on the wings now become vital defensive and attacking players I think. If the ball goes up and down quickly then position play becomes important and the wingers will be the guys getting the bombed kick out to their direction. I'm glad we've got 188cm+ wingmen with strength overhead. Same with big mids. The only concern is we might need some even bigger ones to deal with the 195cm mids a few teams have!

Follow this tweet and it’s thread for a brutal breakdown of the Rams Offense and their failure to adapt to beat Belichick. Note to all NFL coaches. Coach your players to play multiple styles. Without them you have no chance if you come up against a coach who can.

In 1 more season and despite being nearly 2 years older Kruezer has managed 1 more AFL game. 173 v 172. He averages 12 disposals and 20 hitouts. So he's not winning in the air or on the ground. Yeah he's better because he's more likely to compete and do his job, but really there's more similarities than differences. 24 career brownlow votes to 15 show that neither have really done anything. Kreuzer's 2017 was the one year he put it together and had a good season. Watts' 2016 was the one year he did as well. If you were drafting them again you'd stay well clear of both but I'd almost take Watts because in 2016 he showed what he could do. Give me a guy who can kick 38 goals and set up plenty more with accurate inside 50 kicking, with the right culture and development (at the age that it matters) you'd probably have a player that's hard to find. The list of ruckmen who have made the AA team (yet alone the squad) is plentiful and not overly impressive. Guys like Minson and Jamar who were mostly serviceable managed to have standout years at some stage of their careers.

Yeah I miss Burgo’s camp diaries, they were a highlight off the offseason. Interestingly Pert was behind the Pies ramping up their media department. I thought he’d be quick to do the same here, but it might show how the focus is still on investing cash elsewhere. Maybe we need to consult with Tommy Bugg on how to up our influence!

Pats 30 - Rams 27 MVP Trey Flowers